As reported by Gush Shalom in “The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs” in April of 2008, “The supplies contained mainly essential foodstuffs and water filters, which are essential in the Strip because the water there is practically undrinkable. The Palestinian Coalition Against the Blockade intends to give priority to hospitals, where the need for clean water is paramount. For many months, the blockade prevented filters from entering Gaza, producing a serious threat to public health.”

It was hoped at that time that such filters, and other supplies, would be readily imported to Gaza. However, this was not the case, and Palestinians relied on tunnels between Gaza and Egypt described as “virtually the only way that goods have reached the residents of the tiny territory.” In September of 2015, Egypt, in complicity with Israel, flooded the tunnels, effectively closing off Gaza from the rest of the world.

Palestinian children play in fallen rain in front of their home following a rainstorm, in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015. Sewage and other critical infrastructure has been rendered virtually unusable following decades of Israeli bombing campaigns. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Iron for foundations and columns, at any diameter, including wielded steel nets;

Steel cables of any width;

Forms for construction elements, plastics or galvanised iron;

Industrialised forms for casting concrete;

Plastic or composite beams more than 4mm thick

Thermal isolation materials and products;

Blocs at any width, concrete; silicate; Ytong aerated concrete or its equivalent; or gypsum;

Materials and products for sealing structures;

Asphalt and its components (bitumen, emulsion) in aggregate or packaged ;

Steel elements or framing products for construction;

Cast concrete elements and products for drainage over 1m in diameter, and

Precast units and sea-borne containers.

But this does, indeed, represent a liberalization of Israel’s brutal blockade. Prior to 2010, as reported by Dr. Kevin M. Cahill, Chief Advisor on Humanitarian Affairs to the President of the U.N. General Assembly, Israel “… also restricted the importation of lentils, pasta, tomato paste and juice by some incomprehensible logic that these items may pose a security threat. In a particularly cruel twist, even batteries for hearing aids used by deaf children cannot be imported, condemning these unfortunates to a world of silence.”

Additional items that have been banned in Gaza for their apparent threat to Israeli security include chocolate, vinegar, toys and even potato chips.

A report in 2010 by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, occupied Palestinian territory, noted that the number of Palestinians living in what is considered ‘abject poverty,’ meaning they are unable to obtain such basic items as soap, school stationery and drinking water, had tripled since the blockade began. Additionally, most of Gaza’s population only has electricity for about twelve hours each day.

In addition, a report by the UNRWA states that,

“Imports of industrial fuel designated for the Gaza Power Plant continued to decline for the fifth consecutive month, due to a lack of funds needed to purchase the industrial fuel required to operate the plant. As a result, the majority of Gaza’s population experienced rolling blackouts of up to 12 hours per day, every day.”

Gaza: the largest open air prison in the world

Palestinians look at damage caused by an Israeli airstrike on what the Israeli government claims was a Hamas training camp in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)

There has only been a deterioration in the situation since that report was written, nearly six years ago. Prior to the Israeli onslaught of 2014, the World Bank reported that the Gaza Strip had the highest unemployment rate in the world at a staggering 43%, with youth unemployment exceeding 60%. Tens of thousands of people remain homeless.

In 2013, the head of the Popular Committee Against the Siege, Jamal al-Khudari, noted the following: “The losses directly incurred by the industrial sector every year exceed $150 million. About 80% of Gaza’s factories were damaged by the Israeli blockade, causing their closure in whole or in part.”

Khudari attributed “those losses to the tight blockade and the barring of raw materials and construction materials for the private sector, pointing out that more than 200 materials are banned under the dual-use pretext. He accused Israel of “carefully choosing which raw materials to ban in order to ensure that the economic wheel stops and that thousands of workers, engineers, construction workers and factory workers lose their jobs.”

Khudari referred to Israeli-defined “dual-use” items, those items that could, conceivably, be used to make rockets, from entering Gaza. It must be noted that those “rockets” have been described by Dr. Norman Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors and an outspoken critic of Israel (he is no longer allowed in the country), as “enhanced fireworks.”

The ineffectiveness of these rockets is clear. Israel reported that, since 2001, over 4,000 such ‘rockets’ were fired into Israel resulting in fewer than 100 deaths and about $150 million in property damage. The bombs Israel dropped on Gaza during the summer of 2014 equal approximately the strength of one of the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan during World War II. In the 51-day onslaught by Israel against Gaza, over 2,000 Palestinian were killed, and 20,000 homes destroyed. No one will ever say that the U.S.-provided weaponry that Israel uses can be described as “enhanced fireworks.”

These facts and figures can be dry, until the human cost is understood. This writer spoke via Skype with a young friend who lives in the Gaza Strip on January 11, 2016. Saad (not his real name) spoke of the frustration he and so many others feel at not having access to so many basic commodities that much of the world enjoys. Some goods are available for purchase, but because the economy has been crippled by the blockade, there is little money to buy them.

Although this may be seen as only anecdotal evidence, it supports this writer’s conversations with other residents of Gaza. Another friend, 24-year-old Mahmoud Abu Selah, said this: “The blockade converts our life from thinking about the future, to scheduling life around when we have electricity; to a life of seeking for food and water. … In short the blockade stops the life completely here.”

What’s next for Gaza and the State of Palestine?

An apartment block, which was destroyed during the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza is lit by LED lamps, during a power outage in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip. Electricity is available for as little as three hours a day in Gaza, and gas used for heating and cooking is in short supply. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

The U.S. vetos any U.N. Security Council resolutions critical of Israel, despite the widely reported animosity between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Such ‘animosity’ has not prevented Mr. Obama from keeping the ever-flowing money tap to Israel wide open, such that his administration has given more money to Israel than any previous U.S. administration. So much for human rights and international law.

Palestine is recognized by most of the countries of South America, Asia and Africa. The European Union, and individual governments of European nations are holding more and more votes on recognition, and the tide seems to be moving in that direction. The U.S., Canada (to its everlasting shame), and a few other nations will be left behind as the world moves toward human rights for the Palestinians and adherence to international law.

Israel no longer calls all the shots. Turkey, which ‘downgraded’ ties with Israel in 2011, after ten Turkish citizens were killed by Israeli soldiers aboard the Gaza Flotilla, is now in discussions with Israel about renewing ties, but has made the end of the blockade of Gaza one of the conditions for doing so. Egypt is pressuring Israel not to accede to this demand. Yet the international community sees the blockade as illegal. What is an apartheid regime to do?

While Israel can rely on unlimited financial support from the U.S., its options for international legitimacy are fast waning. Eventually, the world will demand that it adhere to the same rules all other nations are supposed to play by.

The U.S.-backed Saudi coalition in Yemen carried out another disturbing war crime against civilians. A series of airstrikes killed at least 55 civilians and injured over 170 more at a busy fishermen market and hospital. According to Yemen’s Health Ministry, the victims included nine children.

The recent devastating car bombing in Mogadishu has been blamed by Somali officials on the terrorist group al-Shabab. But the violence (and famine) that have beset Somalia have deeper roots — decades of imperialism and intervention, and use of Somalia as a staging grounds for the “war on terror.”